Canadian National Park Results for 2012 Field Season

In 2012, the Biodiversity Institute of Ontario (BIO), in collaboration with Parks Canada, initiated the Canadian National Parks Malaise Program. The aim of this project is to gain a more detailed understanding of patterns in Canadian arthropod diversity by coupling DNA barcoding with large-scale trapping in Canada’s National Parks.

The BIObus visited 14 National Parks in Western and Central Canada early in the 2012 field season and deployed a single Malaise trap in representative ecosystems at each park to be serviced by Parks Canada staff (see map). The traps were deployed for roughly 20 weeks and were located in a range of habitats from thick coastal rainforest to open prairie grasslands. All samples were collected by BIObus staff at the end of the season for subsequent processing at BIO.

In addition, the Standardized Sampling program was executed by BIObus staff in a subset of parks to compare how much of the arthropod fauna at a locality can be sampled by a Malaise trap as opposed to other collecting methods. Five standard collecting techniques were employed at 3 sites in each park: Malaise, pan, pitfall, and flight-intercept traps, and sweep-netting.

By fall of 2013, all specimens from the Malaise trap samples had completed processing, i.e. were identified to order, arrayed, labeled, databased, and tissue-sampled for genetic analysis. In total, 189 weekly samples and nearly 150,000 specimens were analyzed, generating nearly 130,000 barcode sequences! In addition, preliminary results for the Standardized Sampling program (about 44,000 specimens) indicate that Malaise traps capture a significant proportion (27-45%) of the local arthropod fauna when compared to different collecting techniques. This indicates that Malaise traps are very effective for appraising the diversity of arthropod species at a site… more so than we ever imagined!

For a detailed look at the results of the program in 2012, click on the links below for an example report from Elk Island National Park. Thanks to everyone in the Bio-Inventory and Collections Unit at BIO for collecting, processing and preparing the report.

The Canadian National Parks Malaise Program continued in 2013 with traps deployed in 14 eastern national parks, ranging from Pukaskwa National Park in Ontario to Terra Nova National Park in Newfoundland. You can look forward to viewing the progress reports for these parks later in 2014!

How many species live in Rouge Park?

How many species live in Rouge Park?

A huge group of scientists and local citizens will aim to answer that very question on September 14 and 15 at the annual Ontario BioBlitz. The Biodiversity Institute of Ontario (BIO) at the University of Guelph has teamed up with the Royal Ontario Museum, the Toronto Zoo, Parks Canada, Ontario Nature, Rouge Park, the Toronto & Region Conservation Authority and the Rouge Valley Conservation Centre to organize this exciting public event. A bioblitz gathers volunteers to conduct an intensive 24-hour biological inventory of a park or region, attempting to identify and record all species of living organisms. Each bioblitz also has a huge educational component, and the Ontario BioBlitz will be no different, educating the public about biodiversity with workshops, hikes and other public activities.

BIO will have over 30 volunteers participating in this year’s event — a team made up of taxonomic experts, field collection specialists, keen young students, and science outreach staff. Angela Telfer, for instance, is the Database Coordinator for the bioblitz, and will be leading a small team of volunteers tasked with maintaining the species inventory, collection data and images. She is excited to be involved and optimistic about the outcome. “The 1450 species collected at last year’s BioBlitz was impressive — the highest ever recorded for Canada in fact. But I’m confident we’ll surpass that total this year. We have over 400 volunteers this year, and everyone is eager to break that mark.”

Jayme Sones, the lead for BIO’s collecting team at this year’s bioblitz, agrees. “The largest improvement over last year, in my opinion, is the addition of DNA barcoding. Those really tiny, difficult to identify organisms can now be targeted, groups such as nematodes and mites. There are very few taxonomists that work on these taxa in all of North America, so finding experts to attend is often impossible. With DNA barcoding, we can place an unknown nematode or mite in a vial, bring it back to BIO and recover its DNA barcode in the lab in a matter of days. Then we query the DNA sequence against the massive Barcode of Life Database, and voila — a species identification that can be added to the park inventory! We plan to barcode up to 5000 specimens of animals, plants, and fungi, so I’m predicting we far surpass last year’s record”.

For more information on this event, and to find out the final species total on September 15, visit the Ontario BioBltiz’s website at www.ontariobioblitz.ca